Recently I acquired one of my favorite calendars from one of the oldest incense stores in Kyoto. They produce the zen scroll calendars in Japan with each month’s scroll written in brush stroke by each a different temple monks selected from around Japan. This is the year of the metal ox according to Chinese astrology and the calendar’s cover page is a charcoal drawing of a man riding an ox while calmly playing the flute.
This makes me think of how, in the lead up to the feast of Christmas Joseph must have felt finding Mary suddenly pregnant. Joseph was free to choose among many options then, yet, decided to stay and help out and see where things would lead.
The world, fate or, really all things external to us are the ox. Sometimes heavy issues can be like lead heavy metal and Joseph riding atop it all gracefully like playing a flute in the midst of it all.